A contradictory figure caught the 25 year old composer’s imagination: his characters move in situations with existential boundari ...

A contradictory figure caught the 25 year old composer’s imagination: his characters move in situations with existential boundaries. In his »Sturm und Drang« opera Idomeneo Mozart conjures the power of nature to surge up in the orchestra. Superior powers are at play. Idomeneo, King of Crete, is hunted down by Neptune’s fury on his voyage home from Troy. He vows to the gods that he will sacrifice the first creature he meets on land if his life is spared. He survives the storm but, the first person he meets is his son, Idamante. He tries to postpone making the sacrifice, which brings new catastrophies on himself and his people. He explains what happened. Idamante offers himself as a sacrifice but is spared by the god, who stipulates that Idomeneo must abdicate in favour of his son.
When Mozart wrote the opera in the summer of 1780 his score was influenced by many styles and contemporaries and his desire to write another opera seria, a stipulation from the court in Munich. Idomeneo marked a turning point in Mozart’s music: the framework was preserved but, internally, opera seria’s rigid structure was broken entirely. This may not be Mozart’s most popular opera but it is certainly the »wildest«.

Synopsis

King Idomeneo, returning from the Trojan War to his island Crete, is eagerly awaited by his son Idamante, the Mykenian King's daug ...

King Idomeneo, returning from the Trojan War to his island Crete, is eagerly awaited by his son Idamante, the Mykenian King's daughter Elektra and his subjects, and, less eagerly, the Trojan King's daughter Ilia. The curse of ten years of war weighs heavily upon him. His life is spared in a terrible storm at sea by Neptune, but only on condition that Idomeneo sacrifice the first person he meets on land, which turns out to be his son. The King puts his own people in danger in trying to avoid carrying out his side of the bargain. When his son finds about the oath his father has taken he offers himself as sacrifice. When Ilia says that she wants to take his place the God is appeased, as long as Idomeneo hand power over to his son.

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